Friday, February 11, 2011

Like everyone else I know, I'm more than a little nervous as to what comes next in Egypt...

But only an utterly heartless person can see the joy of the people throwing off an autocrat and not be extremely proud. Proud not to be an American -- proud to be a human being. Today is a great day. We should all salute the Egyptians who helped make this happen.

Someone I know said, "You don't really think it's going to be a democracy, do you?"

Sadly, no I do not. The sneaking suspicion I have (which is due in part to my there's-no-such-thing-as-good-news Jewish nature) is that the Muslim Brotherhood will step in to fill the power void. Which could tilt Egypt towards two things that I really don't want to see: Sharia law and war with Israel.

But that chapter has not been written yet. I refuse to not honor the Egyptians for doing what was long overdue: Casting off tyranny.

Moreover, not only did the Egyptians rightly refuse to compromise (Mubarak had to step down. Every other ship had sailed.) But they got what they want with such admirable restraint. This revolution has been largely bloodless -- and I'm slightly stunned by this.

In a region where for the last decade or so, Palestinian suicide bombers have been egged on to do their horrific work, well, this is different. This is a change. Dare I say, a big one. And I very much hope the Palestinians are paying close attention to what happened in Cairo for the last 18 days.

We'll all see what happens tomorrow. I'm nervous. But excited, too. Viva!